BASTARDS OF YOUNG

BEACH SLANG

A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings The title is anything but a misnomer for Beach Slang’s sophomore LP, which hears frontman James Alex leading the band through a second helping of hopelessly romantic, idealistically nostalgic punktinged indie rock. Opening with the one-two punch of “Future Mixtape for the Art Kids” and “Atom Bomb,” the Philadelphia-based band waste no time blending the bleeding-heart sincerity of the lyrics with brash ringing guitars and drums begging to be pogoed to. Across ten new songs, Beach Slang run the gamut of the album’s titular sentiments, as relatively light-hearted lines about stitching hearts to sleeves and each other turn into lyrics detailing reckless booze-fuelled nights, all capped off by a poignant plea to fight to survive in closer “Warpaint.”

Primary songwriter Alex is ever the magnetic frontman, years removed from his own teenage experiences but perfectly at ease in the role of a rock’n’roll guidance counsellor. A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings might not be an earth-shattering departure from last year’s debut The Things We Do to Find People Who Feel Like Us, but it’s a loud and beautifully fun ode to young outsiders falling in love, getting fucked up and revelling in their weirdness — and that’s advice as good as any. (Polyvinyl, polyvinylrecords.com)

YOU’RE NOT A TEEN ANYMORE. WHAT IS IT ABOUT THAT PERIOD OF LIFE THAT RESONATES SO STRONGLY WITH YOU?

When I’m writing, I feel like I’m trying to soundtrack a John Hughes film. It’s that first taste. That time in your life when it first hits — it’s that first taste of freedom or the first time you’re finding your own voice or you’re falling in love, just all these intense firsts are happening. I guess I just don’t want to retire from that good feeling, or the bad feeling that comes with it. Everything’s a little more dramatic, a little more turned up and there’s something cool about that. I don’t want to exist quietly.

ARE YOU MAKING THOSE YEARS SOUND MORE HOPEFUL AND HAPPY THAN THEY ACTUALLY WERE?

Yeah, I think that tends to happen. Since I was a kid, whether it was just poems and journals and stuff, it was always a way for me to twist a reality I didn’t completely dig and make it something that felt right. Some of that certainly finds itself into the way I write, but I consciously try to never go so wildly off that it’s like, “Oh, come on now!” SARAH MURPHY